Traditionally, watercrafts have been designed to operate either on the surface of a body of water or as a submersible craft that can operate beneath the water's surface. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,817 to Vaughn entitled “Water Surface Propulsion Device” discloses an aquatic propulsion device that will only operate on a water's surface. Conversely, U.S. Pat. No. 6,748,894 to Dunn et al. entitled “Submersible Marine Vehicle” discloses a submersible marine vehicle.
The Vaughn patent discloses a device that includes a water intake chamber, which is a large open area that houses a motor and a propeller. However, the placement of both the motor and propeller inside the larger water intake chamber creates a large amount of turbulence. That is, water passes through the larger water chamber, around the motor, and through the propeller. Then, water is funneled through a tapered end of the chamber and into much narrower water output tubes. This flow of water creates a great amount of turbulence, and such turbulence greatly restricts the overall speed of the device.
Similarly, the Dunn et al. patent discloses a device that includes a hull housing both a propeller and a motor. The hull is much larger than the size of the propeller and motor. After water passes through the large hull and the propeller and past the motor, the water is funneled into much smaller outlet slots at the back end. This flow of water creates a great amount of turbulence and greatly restricts the overall speed of the device.
Furthermore, the Vaughn patent discloses the use of a trolling motor, and the Dunn et al. patent discloses a vehicle that appears to use a trolling motor. Accordingly, the vehicles disclosed in Vaughn and Dunn et al. are limited to low speeds.
Both the Vaughn and Dunn et al. patents disclose devices that incorporate motors and car-type batteries that are heavy. The added weight of these parts results in poor maneuverability of the device in which they are incorporated.
There is thus a continuing, ongoing need for a personal watercraft that can achieve high speeds and that allows for easy maneuverability. Preferably, such a watercraft achieves high speeds by reducing the turbulence of water as it flows through the craft and achieves easy maneuverability by reducing the weight of the craft.